Nuance Dictionary / Emotions & Feelings
지긋지긋 jigeut-jigeut
The heavy, soul-weary resentment born from enduring someone's unchanging, repeat-offender bad habits or endless nagging.
What does 지긋지긋 mean?
지긋지긋 (jigeut-jigeut) means: The heavy, soul-weary resentment born from enduring someone's unchanging, repeat-offender bad habits or endless nagging. Textbooks love to translate this as a dry, clinical 'tedious' or 'tiresome,' but natives reach for it when a relationship has hit a wall of structural fatigue.
Textbooks love to translate this as a dry, clinical 'tedious' or 'tiresome,' but natives reach for it when a relationship has hit a wall of structural fatigue. It’s not just being annoyed; it’s the quiet despair of realizing, 'You are never going to change, and I am exhausted.' Learners often misuse it for boring tasks like homework—wrong. This word belongs in the trenches of human friction: toxic partners, deadbeat roommates, or nagging parents whose scripts you've memorized for a decade.
◆ Monotonous Grind at Work — When natives mutter this at their desks, they aren't just tired—they are spiritually hollowed out by the inescapable loop of the corporate matrix. Textbooks love to translate it as 'tedious' or 'annoying,' but those words are far too clean; '지긋지긋' tastes like lukewarm convenience-store coffee, fluorescent office glare, and the crushing realization that tomorrow is just a ctrl+c copy of today. It’s what you say right before you aggressively slam your laptop shut or seriously consider ghosting your entire team.
◆ Monotonous Grind at Work — When natives mutter this at their desks, they aren't just tired—they are spiritually hollowed out by the inescapable loop of the corporate matrix. Textbooks love to translate it as 'tedious' or 'annoying,' but those words are far too clean; '지긋지긋' tastes like lukewarm convenience-store coffee, fluorescent office glare, and the crushing realization that tomorrow is just a ctrl+c copy of today. It’s what you say right before you aggressively slam your laptop shut or seriously consider ghosting your entire team.
How it's actually used
- 너의 그 핑계, 진짜 지긋지긋하다.
neo-ui geu ping-gye, jin-jja ji-geut-ji-geu-ha-da.
I am so sick and tired of your excuses.
💡 Cuts straight to the bone, signaling that the speaker has lost all patience for a recurring behavioral loop. - 맨n날 똑같은 소리 하는 거 지긋지긋하지도 않니?
maen-nal ttok-g-at-eun so-ri ha-neun geo ji-geut-ji-geut-ha-ji-do an-ni?
Aren't you sick to death of hearing yourself say the exact same thing every single day?
💡 Deployed during a heated confrontation against chronic nagging, turning the repetition back onto the offender. - 그 사람과의 관계는 이제 지긋지긋해서 연락을 끊었어요.
geu sa-ram-gwa-ui gwan-gye-neun i-je ji-geut-ji-geut-hae-seo yon-rag-eul kkeun-eot-seo-yo.
I was just so drained and done with that relationship, so I cut ties.
💡 Uses polite inflection to describe a unilateral emotional checkout born from long-term exhaustion.